The Sand Angel

If you come from the land of snow, you know about snow angels. Every kid that grows up around snow has made one. You simply lie on your back in a fresh, flat area of the stuff and move your arms and legs in as large an arc as you can. Then you carefully stand up, without disturbing your imprint, and there you are…kind of a permanent imprint of your “spiritual self” to be admired by anyone with imagination who happens to walk by. It is intended to be a “work of art”, a temporary sculpture to inspire and cheer others during the long cold months of winter. Kelly (our daughter) had promised her friend Mike (the potter) that she would make him a sand angel on the beach during her visit. This I suppose was intended to cheer him in much the same way a snow angel would. She said that he had also agreed to make her a snow angel while she was away from the frozen, snowy tundra of Minnesota.

Kelly came down to Fort Myers to visit with us from Feb 18 - 24th. We had a wonderful time and the sand angel was what we did on her last day here. Late in the day on Monday, Feb. 23rd, we decided to go to the beach to make good on her promise. I had recently seen a very nice sculpture of a life-size horse that someone had made on the beach and suggested to Kelly that with her knowledge of horse anatomy, she might try that instead. At that point, we decided to do some research on Google. We typed in “sand sculpture horses” and “sand sculpture angels” and just for fun “sand sculpture dragons” We also typed in “sand sculpture tips” and picked up a few pointers from the pros.

Two hours later we arrived at the beach armed with a wonderful photocopied image of a stone sculpture of an angel (from the internet), some tools, a borrowed shovel, some buckets and spoons from Goodwill and we were set to go to work. We chose a location near the water then dove into our task at around 4 p.m.

Of course, it didn’t look like much at first…mostly we shoveled and piled sand, fetched water with buckets and generally worked on the proportions of the outlines and height of the figure. Eventually, with sunlight waning and the air cooling, our angel began to emerge from the sand and become more and more refined. People stopped and took pictures and asked if we were artists, how long we had been working on it, and if we did this professionally --- very motivating words to help us finish what we had started before sunset.

Finally, with the setting sun raking golden across what had become known as “The Arch Angel”, we were able to stand back and admire our efforts. Small crowds gathered. A family who had watched the entire process from their balcony nearby came over and took pictures with their small children hunched between the giant wings and explained to them that this had something to do with "Lent ". As we hauled our tools back to the car we noticed dozens of “street performers” relieving tourists of their money one dollar a time. It occurred to me that if we had put a tip jar alongside our angel, it might have paid for dinner :~)

Kelly spent her time here doing other things besides playing in the sand. She brought the 7th Harry Potter book with her (partially read) and managed to finish the 768 pager while here. She mourned the idea of finishing the last of the series and is hoping that the auther will consider writing more Harry Potter books. She did have some nice places to sit and read.

Wendy and Kelly also went horseback ridding on the beach up by Sarasota. They just googled the activity and found a small company nearby that offered the service. Isn't Google just amazing? They had a good time. On the way back, they stopped and had lunch at a little restaurant outside of Sarasota that is right on the beach. They sat by an open window and could actually reach out and pick up the soft white sand from where they sat. They had the special of the day (fish & chips) and a local Florida beer. The ocean was a beautiful pale greenish-blue. They went out to the shore, after lunch, to soak up the ambiance. The ocean breeze was a bit chilly --- thus the beach towel for a shawl. The 3 of us went downtown FortMyers Beach after a full day sunning, reading and swimming at the beach. It is a very festive place. There's lots of activity with street performers, sidewalk restaurants and bars and lots of souvenier shops with much of their wares out on the sidewalk.

The Captain and Kelly walking the streets of Fort Myers Beach

Fort Myers Art Fair

Nine years ago we sold our house in Inver Grove Heights and bought 36 acres of rolling farmland in Lanesboro Minnesota. We built our “Dream House” a 6,000 SF straw bale structure that was as much an artist studio as a house. That same year we rented the ground floor of Brewster’s Red Hotel in town and started Strawhouse Studios Art Gallery. We had decided to get into the” lucrative” business of making and selling artwork to tourists. Our plan was to operate our gallery, making art in our studio on the hill during the summer, and then travel the warmer climates during the winter selling our wares at various art fairs. With lots of help and encouragement from our friends and families we managed to do most of this except for the art fair part. What happened? We found out that we were simply not cut out to do retail. Other than that, the desire, ambition and who knows, maybe even the ability was there.

So, now this many years later we had the chance to visit one of the finest art fairs of exactly the kind we were aiming at right here in Fort Myers. The weekend affair was well organized and well attended. Hundreds of artists from all over the country and Canada presented jewelry, sculpture, glassware, painting and photography of the most upscale variety. For example, here's a painting of some Florida birds --- you almost expected them to walk off the canvas they were so realistic.

There was food, music and even some free stuff. The weather was great and parking was “no problemo”. We walked the entire 6-8 blocks and were never disappointed. The sculpture pictured below was incredible and larger than life. The feet were probably 24 inches long and the figure roughly 12 ft. tall. The glass sculpture on the left was also incredible. It was basically hot poured glass drapped over a metal rod and stood about 4 feet high.

Halfway through we stopped and had some lunch and listened to a guy playing his saxophone. Listening and talking to the artists was the best part though. Knowing how close we had come to being the artist in the booth next door was our little secret. We admired all these daring entrepreneurs with all our heart, but we were glad it wouldn’t be us tearing down at the end of the show, loading up our trailer and heading off to the next town. Instead we stopped back at a booth to pick up a painting that Wendy had bought earlier and headed back to the RV for a snack and then early to bed.

Check out this last photo. Do you see Wendy reflected in the glass in the upper left corner? She's taking this photo and ended up being part of the piece :)

The Captain

Kayaking with the twins

Our good friend and neighbor, Len (from Canada), had some very fun visitors last week. His daughter, Krista and her twin girls, Aurora Moon and Star Lynne, came to visit for a week. The girls are 9 years old and full of curiosity and energy. Len had to make sure they had plenty to do while here because they are basically non-stop energy from sun-up to sun-down. The six of us took a 3 hour Kayak trip down one of the Florida river’s here in Fort Myers. We had a blast! The girls really know how to handle a kayak. But considering that their Grandpa (Len) owns and operates a resort on a lake up in Canada, it didn’t really surprise us too much that they knew how to handle a boat, but they really did well for 9 year olds! Aurora is the one with the baseball cap on and Star is the one without.
We sure enjoyed having them around here for a week. It was so much fun to be part of their great 9 year old energy. We rode bikes together, swam in the pool together (during the day and at night, under the stars) had a couple of meals together and just hung out and chatted. We hope to go up and visit them in Canada this summer.

Here’ a shot of Len and his daughter Krista. They were both great fun on this trip too. Krista took some great pictures of the many wild birds that we saw. I don't have them reduced down small enough to post on this blog, but will hopefully get those on in the future. It was really awesome to quietly float up to these wild birds that live and fish on these rivers.

New Venture for Wendy:

As most of you know, I was laid off from my job this past September. I found a great opportunity for a new job as an E-Coach and have been taking an online training course since mid-December. Our class meets once a week for 1.5 hours and I spend the rest of the week doing homework. I hope to be certified this spring. Basically, I will be doing behavioral coaching with teams of managers from various companies that sign up for the course. I will take teams of 5 or 6 managers through a course that will last from 6 – 12 months. The coursework is designed to help them to become more effective mangers and hopefully more fulfilled in thier work. The training is intense and I think that the job will also be pretty intense, but the type of work that I really like. I just feel so lucky that I have found this particular job at this particular time in my life. As mom always said --- there is always a silver lining and everything happens for a reason --- I am a firm believer.




Wendy